Juilliard Girl Needs a Laptop!

College Life
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<p>I am clueless when it comes to computers! I need to purchase one for college and have no idea what I should buy.</p>

<p>I'm considering laptops only. I'm only 4'11", so small and light is good. Will be traveling from the west to east coast with it several times a year. Durable would be good. I don't usually buy service protection plans...should I?</p>

<p>This is what we have at home:
Dell Dimension desktop with XP
Dell Inspiron laptop with XP
I'm pretty comfortable using both. Sadly, I call mom/dad/little brother to troubleshoot when I have problems.</p>

<p>I just used a MAC for the first time this month for my senior project (iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto) and liked it. I would consider a MAC.</p>

<p>But...I would like to not spend more than $1000. From reading past threads, I understand that MACs are most expensive.</p>

<p>I have been a math and science girl all through high school, and have used more technical programs...which have all worked on our PCs...but won't need them anymore.</p>

<p>I will be attending Juilliard as a dance major. We have a liberal arts curriculum, so I'll mostly be needing it for word processing, Internet, email. I will also be dual-enrolled at Columbia University, but will not be taking math/science classes. So, again, mostly word processing and research.</p>

<p>This is embarrassing...but I have never had an iPod and will be getting one for graduation. My brother tells me that they can be used with either a PC or a MAC...true? I have never downloaded music, and that is about to change. I'm guessing that music will become a big part of my life now :)</p>

<p>I'm not at all interested in gaming. Won't have a TV, so I might be interested in watching DVDs on it. Definitely want wireless so I don't have to use that little card thing. I want to be able to have Microsoft's PowerPoint...can this be used on a MAC or is there a MAC version??</p>

<p>Does the above information help? Anything else you would need to know to help me choose? </p>

<p>I know what OS stands for...that about it...so please speak in non-tech terms. I DO thank you!!</p>

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<p>ipods work on both windows and macs. A macbook would be $999 at the cheapest configuration, so if you want a mac you could get one. Macs are small and light and would travel well.</p>

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<p>Ok, so the iPod will work on both win and Mac. From now on, unless you get something to only last a year, get an extended warranty. Win is windows, what you run on your dells.</p>

<p>If you just need something that will do word processing, a MacBook would be sufficient. You would be paying over 1000 for it, but it would be well worth it. Just make sure to get the additional warranty plan. I just did a price check and with the warranty it is 1348.</p>

<p>As far as powerpoints go, Macs can do them just like windows.</p>

<p>Now, if you wanted a laptop that would be able to handle a beating, a thinkpad would be very good for you. They are generally small and fairly light and cheap if i remember correctly, but in my opinion ugly. But very sturdy. My friend had one, put it on his friend’s car, his friend started driving away with it on it and open, it falls to the ground, the car backs up over it on accident and it works fine after. I don’t think you will need that level of durability, but in case.</p>

<p>As far as what else to possibly look at, my suggestion would be to not get a dell. They have good customer service in my experienced (and I used it a lot) but the hardware that they used was horrible (the reason I used it a lot). Look at some HP computers, ask some friends in your area who know something about computers to help you, or pm me or something. I will try to help more if you want it.</p>

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<p>Thank you, bokken, for taking the time to write. Your post, and your past posts to others, were spread all over the kitchen table last night :)</p>

<p>I spoke with my parents, and I think they’ve agreed to the more expensive MacBook (not the MacBook Pro), thanks to the economic stimulus checks! I’m getting one with 2 GB of RAM and a 160 GB harddrive. I chose a CPU of 2.4 GHz. Does that all sound right?? </p>

<p>My friend is giving me one of her three free copies of Office, so I don’t need to buy that. She suggested I buy iWorks for $79.00 more. Why would I need that if I have Office?</p>

<p>Just curious, why the $300+ extended warranty? We have never purchased them before, or needed them…even with the Dells (we’ve had four). It really pushes the price up, so I’m curious to your reasons.</p>

<p>Again, thank you!</p>

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<p>2 GB of RAM, 160 GB HDD and 2.4 GHz CPU should work just fine for you. I don’t use Macs much, but to my knowledge you may have to buy a different version of Office for a Mac… however, iWorks would probably be a fine replacement, the Powerpoint equivalent that comes in iWorks (Keynote, i believe) can produce some much nicer looking slideshows. The three year warranty costs $183, and it’s probably worth it, unless your school has an outlandishly friendly tech-services department for students. Also, if you wait a few months the cost will probably go down with the back-to-school sales…</p>

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<p>Also, make sure you buy from the education store if you’re ordering online, its a lot cheaper.</p>

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<p>We have seven laptops (3 Dell Inspirons, 1 HP Presario, 3 MacBook Pros) and they all still work, even the oldest at around 8 years old. I’ve done some work on them such as replacing disks, adding memory and repairing operating systems.</p>

<p>Most of the people at work that buy Macs do buy AppleCare with them. I don’t understand why but I think that they feel more comfortable with the additional level of service.</p>

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<p>I’ve never bothered with AppleCare with any of my Macs but that’s just because I’ve never needed any additional service. In the odd chance something goes wrong, the online Mac community (which is very easy to find) is more than sufficient. AppleCare gives fantastic service, but you’ll rarely need to use it unless you’re one of those people who has the touch of death and somehow breaks everything they use. Otherwise, visit websites like [url=<a href=“http://www.macusersforum.com%5Dmacuserforum.com%5B/url”>http://www.macusersforum.com]macuserforum.com[/url</a>] and you’ll get an answer from some pros pretty quickly. Or just Google it. =-P</p>

<p>The laptop you’ve chosen sounds great. You will definitely need the Mac version of Microsoft Office; software that works on a PC won’t work on a Mac and vice versa. If it’s a choice between Microsoft Office and iWork, go with Office, if nothing else for the ease of transferring files between your Mac and other PCs. All iWork documents can be exported as PC-friendly, but it’s always easier to have the original program, and it’s not worth it unless you know you’ll spend the majority of your time sharing files with Mac users. I find the iWork programs far easier to use, but if you’re coming from a PC background, just go with Office. I have both but only because I work in film and TV and a lot of the crew I work with use iWork (they’re creativity-nuts) and the management use Office.</p>

<p>Anyway, good luck with it!</p>

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<p>Sorry about such a long response, but going onto CC really takes away from most “productive” things that I do; eg. gaming and a few times a week homework. For me, the reason why I will always buy a warranty is that I had a Dell laptop once. Over 1.5 years, I had to get the monitor replaced, the hard drive replaced, the CD drive replaced, the keyboard needed replacing, and I had bought my own RAM to put in instead of what they included. For me, in that instance, it was really nice having a full warranty.</p>

<p>Besides that, the hardware looks good. When shopping for other people’s computers, I generally am able to restrain a little and unless you were going into some serious class that is based around computers you wouldn’t need anything too much more than that. If you can, get the 7200 RPM hard drive. You are able to tell the difference between that and the 5400 or the 4800 especially. My desktop has 10000 RPM and it makes a lot of difference.</p>

<p>But if your friend’s version of office does not work, take a look at OpenOfficce.org. It is the same thing without some of the more extravagant additions, for free.</p>

<p>As other people are saying, a lot of the time you will not need a warranty, but the peace of mind is always really nice. With Apple products, my iPod died one week after the one year warranty ran out (one week to a month really. Never checked the exact date). But for $183, it will cover you for a few more years in case something happens to the computer.</p>

<p>But I would wait a few months before buying. Apple will be updating the MacBook sometime this summer probably so there should be better hardware and on top of that there will be the student discount. The student discount will be nice and help the price a little, so check it out and see what it has. If you want to buy it before then, feel free, but know that there is probably going to be another release before school starts. I do say probably as this is only looking at what the rumors and projections are. There will, however, be a student discount when its closer to the start of the school year. Free Nano as well.</p>

<p>Hope this helps. I will try to check this thread more in the future just to see how it is going.</p>